Jeremiah Oliver's burial is postponed

Wednesday

Apr 23, 2014 at 7:30 PMApr 25, 2014 at 2:40 PM

By Paula J. Owen TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

FITCHBURG — The family of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver, body was found Friday inside a suitcase discarded off Interstate 190 in Sterling, is asking for help to raise money for the boy's funeral in Fitchburg and burial at Hope Cemetery in Worcester.

Meanwhile, the funeral, which was scheduled for this weekend, has been postponed to a tentative May 3 date. Lawyers for Jeremiah's mother and her boyfriend — both charged in connection with his disappearance — asked that the medical examiner hold on to his remains until Tuesday to allow independent viewing by outside experts of his body and evidence collected during the autopsy.

"We're waiting for him to be released from the medical examiner's office," funeral director Walter C. Taylor of Smith-Mallahy-Masciarelli Funeral Home in Fitchburg said Wednesday. He said he had just been on the phone with the medical examiner's office. "Injunctions filed by the mother and boyfriend's lawyer held it up. They want a private autopsy done."

Mr. Taylor said the funeral home is hoping to hold the funeral and burial on May 3. It will cost around $8,400, he said.

The funeral home had to order a specialty casket because of the boy's size, he said, and is providing it at cost for $750. He said fees at Hope Cemetery are high.

"It's an awful and sad thing," he said. "You never want to have to bury your own children, let alone think about what the cause of this little boy's death was."

Worcester Superior Court Judge James Lemire filed two separate orders Wednesday in reference to motions to preserve evidence filed by the boy's mother's and her boyfriend's lawyers. The medical examiner must hold Jeremiah's remains until Tuesday to allow three separate experts for the defendants time to independently view his body and the medical examiner's findings, including histological slides (tissue samples), X-rays and photographs.

The examination of the body by those experts must be completed no later than Monday, the orders say.

Additionally, the orders say that any physical evidence found with the boy's body be made available for review at a later date.

Judge Lemire denied the defendants' request to have access to the medical examiner who performed the autopsy, and ordered that a state police officer be present during review of the body and evidence.

Moreover, the orders say that any requests by the defendants for recuts of tissue samples must be made via court motion with all associated costs paid by the defendants.

In Fitchburg, many are reaching out in the hope of raising the money needed to bury the child.

Pastor Thomas C. Hughes of New Creation Community Church on Boulder Drive in Fitchburg, which participated in searches to find the boy and a vigil after he was found, said the church is asking for continued community support to help his family come up with funeral costs.

"Jeremiah was part of the community and that is where our focus is," he said. "The announcement of his death last week brought incredible pain to many locally and nationally who still were hopeful he would be found and brought home safely."

Contributions will allow the Oliver family, the Fitchburg community and many others begin to heal, he said.

"Jeremiah is all of ours and we grieve as a community," Mayor Lisa A. Wong said in a statement. "The search for answers may take a long time, but in the meantime we ask for help in burying Jeremiah with his family."

Checks with "Jeremiah Oliver" in the memo section can be made out to Smith-Mallahy-Masciarelli Funeral Home, 243 Water St., Fitchburg, MA 01420.

Any money raised in excess of funeral costs will be donated to Jeremiah's siblings. Donations for his siblings can also be made directly to the Oliver Childrens' Trust Fund, IC Federal Credit Union, 300 Bemis Road, Fitchburg, MA 01420. For more information, call (978) 514-5828.

Jeremiah had been missing since September. The suitcase containing his remains was found about 40 feet off the southbound lane of I-190 beyond exit 6 Friday morning. His death is being investigated as a possible homicide.

Police became involved in Jeremiah's disappearance in December after the boy's sister told school officials that he was missing.

Five people have since been charged in the case.

The boy's mother, Elsa Oliver, 28, of 276 Kimball St., is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a belt), three counts each of assault and battery and reckless endangerment of a child, kidnapping of a child and permitting an assault and battery on a child causing bodily injury.

Jeremiah is listed as the victim for some of the charges, including those alleging kidnapping of a child and permitting an assault and battery on a child causing bodily injury. Two of his siblings are also listed as victims on other charges.

Ms. Oliver's boyfriend, Alberto L. Sierra Jr., 22, of 164 Meadowbrook Lane, Fitchburg, is being held on $250,000 cash bail on charges of kidnapping of a child, four counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (belt or knife), two counts of assault and battery, three counts of reckless endangerment of a child and single counts of indecent assault and battery on a child and assault and battery on a child causing bodily injury. All of the charges, except the one charging indecent assault and battery on a child, one count of assault and battery and one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (knife), list either Jeremiah or one of his siblings as the victim.

Elsa Oliver is listed as the victim in one of the assault and battery charges and one of the assault and battery with a dangerous weapon charges. The victim of the alleged indecent assault and battery on a child is not named in the charges.

In March, police also charged Mr. Sierra's brother and two others in the case. Christian Sierra, 21, Mr. Sierra's brother, and Cailey Thibault, 23, both of 156 Summer St., Apt. 8, and Ashley M. Cormier, 24, of 95 Heywood St. are charged under the intimidation of a witness statute. The three allegedly made cellphone calls and held a clandestine meeting with the child's mother and her boyfriend. Court papers say the meeting was captured on a surveillance video.

Contact Paula Owen at powen@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @PaulaOwenTG

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